FESTIVE SEASON

Into a brief span of time, compassed by two days, is packed emotional tensions, grown out of racial concepts, with the story implicit, rather than developed. There are three main characters: -Sturtevant, a liberal University professor, irresolute in taking a stand for his beliefs until they are challenged by prejudice against his ex-pupil and friend, Robert Silver, a Jew to whom an appointment has just been denied. The third is Lisa Hoffman, refugee and governess to the nieces and nephews of Robert Silver. The shock of discovering that anti-semitism is not confined to Nazi Germany brings anguish to her, and to Sturtevant the realization that he must make unprejudiced people unite with him in action. The perceptive characterizations, the skilled projection of the background of the Seder celebration in orthodox Jewish household on West End Avenue, New York, the challenge of ideas combine to make this an interesting first novel, a novel of ideas rather than action. Better than the average thesis novel.